The Home of Australian Craft Beer

Holgate Brewhouse Brewery

A genuine one stop shop for the discerning beer tourist, Holgate's Woodend Brewhouse combines a brewery, public bar, restaurant and hotel under a single roof. Just an hour from Melbourne, in the shadow of the Macedon Ranges, you'll to find a bar lined with site-brewed beers on tap, including some hand-pulled from the cask in traditional British fashion.

The unintended consequence of holidays in England ('93) and the USA ('97) for owners Paul and Natasha Holgate, the business started life in 1999 as an extension of his home brewery while both still worked in the city, but soon demanded a bigger venue. They took over Woodend's former Commercial Hotel/Keatings Hotel and have never looked back, producing an ever-expanding range of beers inspired by classic styles from Europe and the North American micro scene, as well as barrel-aged and other experimental beers.

Visitors can watch beer being made in the brewery, head to the bar for a tasting paddle, including a beer poured through their homemade 'Randall' (a machine that adds a hit of fresh hop flowers to the beer before it reaches your glass), then move to the restaurant for a meal, many of which are cooked with Holgate's beers as a key ingredient. And, if you've had one too many, Natasha will find you a clean, comfortable room upstairs for the night.

Drinkers nationwide can get their hands on the wide range of Holgate beers more readily these days too, following a series of upgrades and expansions in advance of their 15th anniversary in October 2014. Further expansion is planned too with grand plans to extend onto land at the rear of the hotel and build a tasting room and educational centre.

The Regulars

Tapped Fri Jan 29 2016

In 2015, one of the many limited run beers to make its way from Holgate's baby Tank 9 was Hop Tart, a "Semi Sour Pale Ale" in which the brewers played around with souring bacteria Lactobacillus to create lactic acid and, thus, a spot of sourness within a relatively hoppy ale. To achieve their goal, they chose to naturally sour their wort [the sugary liquid produced early in the brewing process after crushed grains are soaked in hot water] by giving it an extended rest in the company of ···
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Tapped Thu Sep 17 2015

In recent years, Paul Holgate has been embarking on various trips around the world to learn from masters of the beer world so he can bring the knowledge back to Woodend and take his beers to another level. A recent overseas jaunt took him to Germany, where he spent time studying how they made such wonderful, delicate lagers with the intention of adding one to the brewery's core range.
Since returning, the brewery's Tank 9 – reserved for small trial batches – has been used to see if what he'd ···
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Pale Yellow

Style

Helles Lager

Strength

4.3%

Bitterness

15 IBU

Stockists

Available widely across Australia on tap and (from October 2015) in bottles

Brewers who aren't constantly tweaking and seeking to improve their beers are no doubt few and far between. And certainly that's been the case at Holgate Brewhouse in recent times, where they've been revisiting and subtly reinventing a number of their core beers. Among those are the Hopinator, their double IPA, that prior to the release of the Millennium Falcon was the hoppiest in their lineup of pale ales.
Over the years, as the recipe has changed, the alcohol content has risen, while the resinous ···
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Holgate's hoppy, hoppy Road Trip, the IPA inspired by a trip through the Pacific Northwest of the States, debuted as a draught only release in 2010 before returning in the same format a year later. It's a beer that, in a first for the brewery, had hops added from the very first moment to the last: hops went into the mash tun, followed by multiple further additions throughout the boil and more during fermentation.
If you know your US hops, think of any beginning with C and chances are they're in ···
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While a big seller for the brewery, Holgate's original Pilsner was always our least favourite of their range. And before anyone thinks we're being out of order saying this publicly, we'd told the brewers how we felt in the past. So we were delighted to hear rumours that they were revisiting the recipe with the intention of creating a more true-to-style German pilsner, using imported Bavarian pilsner malt and increasing the alcohol content.
Right from the off the signs are promising, with the sweet ···
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A true European style lager that uses a bucketload of Czech Saaz hops but is brewed to the Dortmunder style, it's a light straw-coloured beer with a clean malt palate and a grassy / floral hop aroma and dry bitter finish. A crisp, refreshing beer for thirst-quenching on hot day, the brewers recommend pairing it with seafood or rich dishes such as deep fried fish or pizza. ···
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At a beer masterclass many moons ago at which Holgate's beers were paired with different food samples, this chocolate porter was served last with some rich chocolate desserts. It drew gasps. "How could a beer have so much chocolate flavour and still taste like beer?" asked the guests. With the addition of plenty of Dutch cocoa and whole vanilla beans to the boil was the answer.
Originally introduced as a one-off, the Temptress proved so popular and picked up so many awards that it became ···
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Anyone who's ever enjoyed a quality ale at a good British pub will be transported back there by Holgate's ESB, a fine recreation of a traditional English ESB.
Deservedly shortlisted for Best Victorian Beer at the 2010 Australian International Beer Awards, it's a malt-driven beer rich with layers of caramel, toffee and biscuit, backed up by a firm hop bitterness derived from a generous addition of English Fuggles and Golding hops. A longstanding member of the Holgate lineup since the early days and ···
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Named after nearby Mt Macedon, this was one of the first Holgate beers to hit the market. Back in the early days, use of Vienna malts meant it poured a deep honey colour and had a delicate caramel malt flavour finished with a piney, resinous hops from the US Pacific North West.
Over the years, the beer as been refined and reworked into what it is today: a paler beer that still showcases New World hops but does so within a leaner and drier body than before. A fine Australian session pale that sits ···
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Golden Yellow

Style

American Pale Ale

Strength

4.5%

Bitterness

25 IBU

The Specials

Tapped Thu Oct 13 2016

Holgate is the latest local brewer to dabble its toes in gose, with this tangelo'd affair its Spring seasonal release. It comes out around the same time that Nomad has popped its Freshie gose into cans and not long after Sailors Grave launched with Down She Gose as its first release. Indeed, such is the growing interest in the once almost forgotten salty, slightly sour German style that we'd asked our resident beer scholar to pen an article on gose only to discover that, as one of the brewers at ···
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Tapped Thu Jul 28 2016

If memory serves, the first Beelzebub's Jewels was also Holgate's first foray into barrels. Then it was very much an experimental "let's see what happens if..." kind of affair. The brewers took their Double Trouble Belgian style ale, popped it into Curly Flat wine barrels and looked to raise its booze levels well above the starting point of 8 percent ABV. It worked out well enough that the following year they designed a brand new base beer and increased the number of barrels.
Since then, ···
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Tapped Thu Jul 28 2016

Given how many different beers they've released in their 17 years – straightforward lagers, English and American style ales, Belgians big and small, sours and more – it's quite something that Holgate Brewhouse reached this point without a stout to its name. Perhaps when you've got a porter in your arsenal that has been loved the country over for years on end, there's no real need. And, perhaps, when you do decide it's time, you feel it should be done with a bang.
Certainly, there's been no holding ···
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Tapped Fri Apr 22 2016

At March's Good Beer Week Gala Showcase, a brewer who's never shy with his opinions approached with what can only be described as the zeal of a zealot – yes, that much zeal.
"Have you tried the Flanders Red yet?" he demanded.
"The Boatrocker one? Yeah, it's good but pretty straight up and down compared to some of the beers they've done."
"No! Holgate. They've got a few bottles under their bar. It's probably the best Australian beer I've had in a year."
Seventeen seconds ···
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Tapped Thu Feb 4 2016

Poor Tank 9. It's the smallest of all the tanks at Holgate's brewery yet it seems to take a terrible pounding as the home of their experimental releases. Then again, maybe it's the happiest tank in the land, eagerly waiting to see what variety of sugary, hoppy wort will next fill it from the boots up, ready to be feasted on by happily munching, multiplying and farting yeast. If only tanks could talk, hey?
The two latest beers to have undergone gestation within the stubbornly mute cylinder of stainless ···
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Tapped Thu Dec 17 2015

The Mt Macedon Hotel is one of the growing number of places bringing great beer to people outside Australia's craft beer heartlands. It's a beautiful pub in the Victorian countryside that has a quite staggering array of beer on tap and in bottles. One of its earliest supporters when it was changing to better beer was nearby Holgate Brewhouse and now they've got together to make a beer in the brewery's experimental baby Tank 9 (pictured).
According to brewer Nic: "Like kids in a candy shop [the ···
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Tapped Wed Nov 25 2015

Holgate's brewers were cut loose recently and invited to brew whatever their heart's desired within the brewery's baby Tank 9. You can read more about the concept in our write up for beer #1 in the series here. Beers #2 and #3 are now out too; indeed, they're being showcased all together at a couple of events. So time to complete the trilogy.
The second is the Unflemished Belgian IPA comes from Josh, who says: "Given the brewery's love for Belgian styles and IPAs, I deemed it appropriate to ···
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Tapped Wed Nov 18 2015

Ever since filling every other nook and cranny in the brewery with much bigger tanks, the Holgate Brewhouse team has been using the last remaining baby, Tank 9, as the place for trial and experimental brews. And, as an early Christmas present to his brewers, owner Paul invited the four of them to create whatever they wanted inside it as a break from brewing, mostly, Holgate's core range.
Rather than go nuts and concoct a series of big, crazy beers they kept things pretty restrained. First up was ···
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Tapped Wed Oct 14 2015

Now isn't that a name that rolls off the tongue: Crosby Idaho Experimental #4. It's the sort of name Aphex Twin would give to a track featuring his mother singing lullabies, her voice mangled through a handful of homemade vocoders then merged with the sound of a pneumatic drill pounding the deep end of an abandoned swimming pool recorded on an old spy microphone from inside a bird hide. Remarkably, however, it isn't that. It's the latest small batch, draught only beer from Holgate.
The reason for ···
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Tapped Mon May 4 2015

To mark Star Wars Day, Holgate Brewhouse has brought its Millennium Falcon back for another burst of its hopperdrive. The beer started as one of the most punny beers you could ever wish to find; it was the Woodend brewery's 1000th brew and featured Millennium, Falconer's Flight and Galaxy hops. The beer was given even more hops last year for its second tour and has been boosted once more this time around.
What was already a 10 percent "Emprial IPA" has been nudged up to 10.5 percent ABV ···
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Tapped Mon Apr 20 2015

A wet hop beer, an IPA and a collaboration all in the one beer: it's a veritable beer trend extravaganza! Bull in the Big Smoke sees one of the elder statesmen of the Australian craft beer world, Woodend's 15 years-and-counting Holgate Brewhouse, join forces with one of the liveliest new recruits to the craft beer-pouring world, Sydney's raucous rabbit hole of a venue Frankie's Pizza.
At the heart of their joint effort are hops, fresh hops plucked from the recent Aussie harvest and rushed into hot, ···
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Tapped Fri Mar 20 2015

Aside from Grand Ridge, Mountain Goat and Holgate Brewhouse are the longest established Victorian microbreweries. The former turns 18 later this year, while Holgate is well into its 16th year. And now the combined 30-odd-year-olds have joined forces for their first collaboration, a collaboration based around their first beers.
Goat's first beer was the Hightail, while Holgate launched with an ESB and White Ale, the latter based on Hoegaarden. And, as the name suggests, it is the Dutch-inspired brew ···
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Tapped Tue Feb 10 2015

One of the questions we ask in our semi-regular Brew & A features with Aussie brewers (only semi-regular as they're all too bloody busy to respond...) is what beer would they choose if they were stranded on a desert island for the rest of their days. When compiling the questions years ago, we tried them out ourselves and, while temptation might have been there to go for something "on trend" (probably double IPAs back then) it was hard to see past a good Munich helles: the lagers that ···
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Tapped Mon Feb 9 2015

Saison: the archetypal farmhouse beer style. Barry: the archetypal Aussie farmer (well, at least according to the brewers at Holgate). As part of its prolific Tank 9 Series of releases, which started in 2014 and make use of the brewery's smallest remaining fermenter, Holgate have produced their first saison that takes inspiration for its name from the classic Belgian beer, Saison Dupont, and gives it an Aussie makeover.
Designed to provide some spritzy summer quaffing, the cloudy yellow offers up ···
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Tapped Mon Jan 5 2015

There's no stopping them at Holgate these days, it seems. Founder Paul has been jetting around the world absorbing all he can on the science side of brewing and is investing in the lab side of his Woodend brewery, they've added more taps to their brewpub bar and are producing all manner of new small batch and experimental beers.
One of the latest additions to the small batch lineup is the GateKeeper, the brewery's stab at an increasingly popular style among microbreweries on these shores: the full-flavoured ···
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Tapped Wed Dec 31 2014

If ever you were after proof that you an teach an old bull new tricks look no further than Holgate Brewhouse. Now in its 16th year as a brewery, it has grand plans for further expansion and continues to explore new avenues with its beers while improving its old ones. In the former category beer wise is a delve into the world of sour and farmhouse beers. On a trip to the USA last year, brewery founder Paul Holgate called in to Russian River to learn from the best on how to manage regular and sour ···
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Tapped Thu Nov 27 2014

It looks like Holgate is embarking on its own take on the soft porn smash of the decade, substituting 50 Shades of Grey for 50 Shades of Hops. OK, so maybe it's not quite 50 but with the release of this Californian IPA – the first release to bear their new "Gate Series" tag – and the "Tank 9" single hop TOPAZ IPA they've got quite the progression of hoppy beers now, from the Mt Macedon Ale through Road Trip IPA to these two new IPAs, the Hopinator Double IPA and, once a year, ···
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Tapped Sun Oct 12 2014

If one thing was clear from the chat we have with Paul and Natasha Holgate when preparing a write up on their recent 15th anniversary was that they've never really done things the easy way but, instead, what they believed was the right way. Their first two releases back in 1999 showed that they'd do what they wanted, with Paul opting to announce Holgate with the Old Pale Ale (now the ESB) and a white ale inspired by Hoegaarden.
While the ESB lives on year round, the White Ale has become a lesser ···
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Tapped Mon May 12 2014

You don't see a huge number of Belgian Dubbels been brewed around Australia. Thankfully, generally when you do they are rather tasty. There's Little Brewing's deeply complex Mad Abbot version, Hargreaves' occasional AD (new batch available at the cellar door right now) and a handful of one-offs, while Bright has long had its Fainters Dubbel, recently reworked by head brewer Jon Seltin who, in a conversation last week, declared a barrel-aged version of said beer that is due for a very limited release ···
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Tapped Sun Mar 9 2014

The beer originally created for Holgate's 1,000th brew is back. The Star Wars-inspired Millennium Falcon is the brewery's hoppiest beer, sitting atop a hierarchy of pale ales that starts with their Mt Macedon Ale and continues through the Road Trip IPA and Hopinator to this Imperial (or Empirial) IPA. Continuing the Star Wars theme throughout the beer, it features Millennium, Falconer's Flight and Galaxy hops. Plenty of them too, with the beer registering 10 percent ABV and 100 IBU (a measure of ···
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Tapped Thu Dec 12 2013

Holgate's Temptress, its cocoa and vanilla porter, has been one of the most surprising and enduring success stories of the rise of Australian craft beer. An instant hit upon launch a few years back, its lusciousness has continued to win over drinkers and diners ever since. It is, however, perhaps not the first beer you'd reach for when the mercury heads above 30C so the brewers decided to create a summery version instead to tide you all over. Named in honour of the gateway to Woodend, the Black Forest, ···
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Tapped Tue Oct 8 2013

With the last drops of their dunkelweizen, Brick Kiln, drained from the Brewhouse bar, Holgate has lined up a new, more seasonally suited, wheat beer. It is, as far as we're aware, their first hefeweizen (southern German style wheat beer) and, after much discussion over potential names - Banana Snuggler (don't ask), Island Farm Hefe - they decided it would be christened The Little Heifer. Brewed partly to appease a Bavarian regular at their pub, it follows "classic wheat beer lines, but with ···
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Tapped Wed Jul 31 2013

The beer that Paul Holgate created to mark the brewery's 10th anniversary was one dusted down from the pages of his old home brewing recipe book. It's been released ever since as a winter seasonal, tweaked along the way too. It's back to warm the cockles during the colder months once more, it being a reimagining of the Northern English style that's loaded up with lashings of Australian macadamia nuts and hearty English malts to create a brew that the brewers like to claim "smokes a pipe and ···
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Tapped Wed Jun 19 2013

A winter beer that's not an Imperial Stout - who'd have thunk it? At least that's how it feels this week, with Holgate's annual release of its dunkelweizen coming in the midst of a wave of big, black beasts. A beer named in homage to Brick Kiln Road in Holgate's hometown of Woodend, which was where founders Paul and Natasha had the inspiration to open a brewery while out rambling, it's one inspired by the dark wheats of Bavaria. It pours such a deep brown that the punch of the candy bananas on the ···
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Tapped Fri Jun 7 2013

The team at Holgate Brewhouse releases plenty of beers year round that require careful nurturing and nudge at the boundaries of what beer can be. But there's nothing in their roster quite like the Beelzebub's Jewels. First released in 2010, when it was based on their Double Trouble - given a boost inside some Curly Flats pinot noir barrels - it's since been enhanced, starting from a brand new recipe in 2011, with refinements and lengthier periods in barrels ever since. The changes were obviously ···
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Tapped Thu Apr 11 2013

Anyone else suspect the team at Ní¸gne í? is after Aussie citizenship? Perhaps they've grown tired of the endless winters and fancy a life in the sun. Either way, they seem to be gifting us an endless supply of collaborative beers, which to date already includes the India Saison, Aurora Borealis, Our Dark Secret and now this, with a collab with Moon Dog and another with Bridge Road already in tank (and barrel and fish bowl or whatever else they can find to use). This is the beer that came about ···
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Tapped Fri Mar 1 2013

There has been no holding back for the 1000th brew by Victoria's Holgate Brewhouse. Taking the millennium as the starting point, they spun a Star Wars-inspired tale and followed it through to the nth degree by throwing as many references as possible into the beer. It features Millennium, Falconer's Flight and Galaxy hops, is subtitled an "Empirial IPA" and was launched at the Village Brasserie with the entire brewery crew dressed as Star Wars characters, including a rather dashing Hans ···
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Tapped Mon Jan 30 2012

A beer that was originally going to be called the Clock Tower, until in the week it went into tank the brewers at Holgate noticed that True South was releasing an IPA with the same name. So back to the drawing board it was and up came the Bruges Bombshell. Why? Well, because it's a bolshy Belgian style ale and Bruges is in Belgium, where head brewer Paul Holgate had just been on holiday and... you get the message. So what of the beer? Well, we're told it's "full flavoured but easy drinking with ···
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Tapped Mon Oct 24 2011

Back in time for the warmer weather is Holgate's take on the Belgian witbier style, this time with a new recipe. Following in the footsteps of tweaks to many of their beers, from the Hopinator to the Pilsner, the White Ale returned late in 2011 with a different yeast strain, one that seems to have boosted its "wit-iness". A beer that was previously drier, with hints of coriander and citrus characters, now has more of both, particularly on the citrus front (thanks to the addition of oranges ···
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Tapped Fri Aug 26 2011

When it's at its best, Holgate's ESB is one of few Aussie beers that can transport the drinker 11,000 miles to a pub in the UK without leaving their seat. And this, the UXB - or unexploded bomb - to give it its full name, is the ESB but bigger; 60% bigger to be precise, with the malt bill and hops boosted by that amount. This is only its second appearance, after it graced a few taps to acclaim around about the same time last year. As you'd expect, the result is a thicker-bodied beer, smooth and full ···
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Tapped Thu Aug 25 2011

The beer that Paul Holgate created to mark the brewery's 10th anniversary is back to warm the cockles during the colder months once more. Notable in that, rather than concoct something wild and crazy to mark the occasion he chose a style he loved and wanted to see more of Down Under, it's a beer that features roasted macadamia nuts added to the boil. A blend of six malts mean there's plenty of rich, dark chocolate, toasty and nutty flavours to play with and, in this year's, a drier, less sweet, finish ···
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Tapped Wed Jun 1 2011

A beer that one punter told Crafty he'd like to take to bed, the Empress really is as sensual an experience as beer gets. Taking the brewery's Temptress as the start point – same malt bill and bitterness, same use of Dutch cocoa and vanilla beans – this originally took a journey to lands anew for the first Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular in February.
As well as making it into an Imperial Mocha Porter (10 percent ABV to the Temptress' 6), the brewers were keen to give it an Aussie twist so ···
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Tapped Sun May 1 2011

The second appearance for what is to be the Woodend brewery's annual Easter release, this year's Devil's Whatsits is a different beast to last year insofar as rather than basing it on an existing Holgate beer, it's a whole new recipe, one that includes masses of candi sugar as the brewers set about creating a Belgian-style Quadrupel. At 12%, it's designed to age. And at $60-plus a bottle, it's designed to be a special occasion beer too. But what of it now - just released from the brewery, where it ···
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Tapped Wed Dec 15 2010

Without wishing to be too old-fashioned, chauvinistic and all-round Ocker about it, a Holgate brewer did suggest to Crafty that, of their two summer seasonals - the other being the mash-hopped Road Trip IPA - this was the one "for the ladies". The latest version of their Belgian witbier-inspired White Ale comes with the addition of coriander and whole Valencia oranges into the boil to give a little citrus and spice boost to the fruity esters already gained from the yeast. It's on tap at ···
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Tapped Mon Oct 18 2010

Another of Holgate's beers to have undergone something of a tweak for 2010 (see the Mount Macedon and Hopinator for other examples), the new Double Trouble is causing trouble at the brewery - the brewers can't stop drinking it... A Belgian Abbey style Dubbel, it's all about richness of flavour: intense dark fruit, toffee and dark rum characteristics that make it a good match for sweet desserts or cheese platters. Paul Holgate says to look out for the October 2010 date on bottles if you're after this ···
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Tapped Fri Sep 17 2010

We're beginning to suspect there's something in the Woodend water at the minute. Holgate's original Mount Macedon Ale has discovered a punchier new hop character, the Hopinator's reacted in kind and their seasonals are flying out the door like there's no tomorrow. With this year's final batch of Brick Kiln Dark Wheat Beer still conditioning, it's time for Spring and the arrival of the Road Trip IPA. Inspired by Paul Holgate and family's holiday in Pacific Northwest USA last year, it's a hop lover's ···
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Tapped Fri Sep 3 2010

Anyone who's met Paul Holgate and his team of brewers will know they're a swarthy lot: real men with testosterone literally teeming from their pores. However, they are known to like a ladyboy or two. "What?" you say. Well, for the past year or so, they've been offering them over the bar at their Woodend brewhouse, the Ladyboy being a Black & Tan style mix of their cocoa and vanilla bean Temptress (the lady) and roast macadamia-laden Nut Brown Ale (the boy). For a limited time only, ···
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Tapped Thu Aug 26 2010

When choosing a tenth anniversary beer in 2009, Paul Holgate eschewed the idea of creating something extreme in favour of a style he'd enjoyed making in his home brewing days. The resultant Nut Brown Ale, made with roasted macadamia nuts added to the boil was an instant winner. A blend of six different malts lent it multi-layered rich, dark roasted flavours with a touch of caramel sweetness, lifted by the nut addition and rounded off with a short hop finish. Originally a one-off, it's now scheduled ···
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Tapped Thu May 20 2010

A hearty winter special, this is a dark wheat beer (dunkel weizen) inspired by the Bavarian version and made with imported German malts and a special wheat beer yeast strain that gives it prominent banana and clove aromas. Pouring a hazy apricot orange, it boasts a clean palate and gently bitter finish. ···
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Golden

Style

Dunkel weizen

Strength

5%

Bitterness

16 IBU

The Crafty Pint is an independent online magazine and resource for anyone interested in craft beer in Australia. We bring an honest, old-fashioned journalistic approach to beer's brave new world, telling stories because they're worth telling not because someone is paying us to write them.

Like many of the people who have changed the face of beer in Australia, we believe in authenticity, integrity, enjoyment and love. We hope to play a role in helping good beer, brewed by good people, find its way into the hands of more drinkers.